National News

IS attacks kill at least 50 in east Syria

Islamic State suicide attackers have killed at least 50 people in a triple car bomb attack among a group of refugees in northeast Syria, a medical source in the Kurdish Red Crescent says.

A large number of people were also injured in Thursday's attack, the source said.

The attack took place at Abu Fas, near the border of Deir al-Zor and Hasaka provinces, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said, after earlier saying at least 18 people had died.

The dead included refugees fleeing the fighting in Deir al-Zor as well as members of the Kurdish Asayish security force, the Observatory reported. Syrian state television said dozens had been killed in the attack.

The jihadist group has lost swathes of its territory in both Syria and Iraq this year and is falling back on the towns and villages of the Euphrates valley southeast of Deir al-Zor.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias is pressing it from the north and a rival offensive by the Syrian army, supported by allies including Iran and Russia, is attacking it from the west.

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